Holidays

Thanksgiving

Date: November 22, 2002Subject: THANKS-giving = Gratitude, Dear G.S. People, [Anonymous] in Cambridge here. I W & M 3 meals off the grey sheet (as interpreted by my sponsor regarding the microquestions about new products, maintenance amounts, days of flu and nausea, etc.) every day, write them down, commit them to my sponsor. Abstinence is the most important thing in my life. I have taken to printing out the greynet posts and reading them right before I go to sleep. This simple act has ratcheted up my g.s. gratitude, as has the "three fold" holiday. I always feel very nostalgic and grateful on Thanksgiving, because it connects so clearly to my grey sheet abstinence. First of all, Thanksgiving was "amateur day" for normals. For me, the hell started when I was a fat kid. I ate all day and then ate the meal and then counted the minutes until I could sneak back into the kitchen and attack the carcass (the inside of course). Even the words of the meal's favorite carbs made me tingle with anticipation. Who knows what guests we had at the table? Later I tried to diet (as a teenager, I was on many diets and never understood why I kept "breaking out") during the big meal, but then I binged in secret later that night (and on into the night). Christmas was the same. The words "holiday" and "vacation" came to strike fear into my heart, because my cravings (I call them the Cyldesdale team of horses on speed--powerful and unwieldy) were turned up high, and once again, I was the fattest cousin at our family gatherings. I never knew what we know (and what they still do not get in all the diet stories in the media):

Planned, Prepared, Protected

Hi there GSA community ! [Anonymous] here. I'm A & G today because I W & M 3 meals a day from the CGS, write those meals down, commit them to my sponsor and don't eat in between NMW !! Our family celebrated Thanksgiving last Sunday at our house and I am so grateful to have protected my abstinence; I "planned, prepared, and protect" -ed my abstinence just like you taught me. Here's what I did:

Goodness Hangover

'Tis the season for Goodness Hangovers. Beware. These bothered me the first few years of abstinence on the greysheet, because I had not yet recovered fully from Career Dieting. The Goodness Hangover was the last phase of my Dieting Syndrome. It usually happened when I had done very well on my diet, and then had to make an heroic effort at some event where all my binge foods were spread out in front of me. I was very very strong and did not partake of this spread of goodies, and returned home congratulating myself on my will power and strength of character. At that point, I was in the full bloom of the Goodness Hangover - I was just a magnificent, terrific person, completely changed - the eating problem was solved, and I would march into the sunset a thin woman at last. The next day dawned on terrible hunger. I was literally clawing the walls for anything sweet, and never lasted longer than breakfast, where I began wolfing down anything sweet I could find. By that evening, I was completely drunk on sugar, and knew I was a complete and total failure, never to rise from my fat again.